Police detained truck drivers protesting on the Moscow Ring Road

Soldiers of the Russian Guard detained at least 20 truckers at a protest parking lot at 51 km of the Moscow Ring Road, Ovd-Info reports .

All the detainees were immediately confiscated and had no contact with them.

As the head of the Association of Carriers of Russia (OPR) Andrei Bazhutin told Novaya Gazeta, there were 16 heavy trucks in the parking lot with OPR flags on them.

“All the guys were in the dining room at that moment, the police arrived and, without explanation, took everyone away, more than 20 people. They sat in a paddy wagon in the parking lot for almost an hour and a half. Then they began to search inside the cars, found posters, the police themselves hung them on the cars and took photographs,” said Bazhutin.

Now the detained truck drivers are being taken to the police department.

The day before, the Khimki City Court fined Andrei Bazhutin 30 thousand rubles under Part 2 of Article 20.2 (Organizing or holding a public event without filing a notification in the prescribed manner). In addition, the court also fined eight truck drivers 10.5 thousand rubles under Articles 19.3 and 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer and violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a rally).

A day earlier, the police detained more than 10 truck drivers who staged a strike in Khimki against the Platon system. More than 10 trucks from different regions of Russia then came to the city near Moscow.